The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1887-02-19

was something to learn, some new height
to be gained. He attained his knowl-
edge, but he paid and is paying the
price. Let him not murmur. It is
worth what it costs. There are exalted
moments of life, not many of them,
perchance, that bring US recompense
for the sorrow, and heart-ache, and dis
appointment of years. One mount of
TRANSPORTATION makes ample amends
for thousand calvarys.
The mandate that doomed man to a
life of labor was no "curse." 1t is his
greatest blessing that he must eat his
bread in the sweat of his brow, and
learn his lessons in the agony of his
spirit. Thanks to the angel whose
flaming sword forbade return to life
Of infancy, and ease, and ignorance.
knowledge with all its perils and pains,
rather than ignorance with it's un-
thinking repose Innocence is not vir-
tue. Behind virtue are tempters and
battles. 1t comes of many conflicts.
1t comes of knowledge that sometimes
appals, but does not undo it; that re-
veals new forces of evil, but also new
sources of strength. Evermore is man
hood born in the furnace. Character is
the compensation we find in the flames.
2. What shall be said of our failures
and mistakes +? Is there no wisdom in
the grief and humiliation they have
brought US ? Sings Browning,
ia paradox
Which comforts while it mocks,
Shall life succeed in that it seems to fail:
What I aspire to be,
And was not, comforts me:
A brute might have been, but would not sink
+ the SCALE"
Our aim was highs that nothing +?
Is there no consolation in the thought
that we tried to do something worthy :?
The effort was not fruitless, though
outwardly it came to naught. No man
can think noble thought or essay a
noble deed without becoming thereby
ennobled. Some of the ripest and
sweetest characters are those whose
outward lives accomplished little. They
would not stoop to meanness, they were
doomed to neglect. ga brute l might
have been, but would not sink i the
SCALE" Let them rejoice in their aspi-
rations. 1t is better to send from the
heart dove, though she return with
no olive-branch, than to make that
heart roosting- place for unclean birds.
Better attempt something right and
fail, than something wrong and achieve
it. Better die at the stake for truth
than push a lie to victory. Disappoint-
ment teaches us that there is something
better to live for than material success;
that principles are worth more than
dollars; that character is better than
renown.
But these lives of failure and disap-
pointment have larger meaning,
wider relationship than we know. We
are so bound up in the bundle of life
together that the influence of every
high thought and glorious purpose ex-
ats the entire race forever. Drops of
water from the tiniest rivulet that pays
tribute to the ocean, glitter in the might
lest billow that rolls. The honest heart
throb of the lowliest peasant quickens
the pulses of every potentate. The
brave word spoken in obscurity, makes
music through all nations.
"No stream from it's source
Flows seward, how lonely soever its course,
But what some land is gladdend. No star
ever rose
And set, without influence somewhere. Who
knows
What earth needs from earth's lowest crea-
ture? No life
Can be pure in its purpose and strong in its
strife.
And all life not be purer and stronger thereby.
The spirits of just men made perfect on high,
The army of martyrs who stand by the Throne
And gaze into the Face that makes glorious
their own,
Knew this, surely, at last. Honest love, hon.
est sorrow,
Honest work for the day, honest hope for the
morrow;
Are these worth nothing more than the hand
they make weary,
The heart they have sadden'd, the life they
leave dreary?
Hush! the sevenfold heavens to the voice of
the Spirit
Echo: He that o'ercometh shall all things
inherit"
what good" asked some one, did
Helvidius Priscus do in resisting YES
pasian, being but single person ?"
what good, "answers Epictetus, 'does
the purple do on the garment? Why, it
is splendid in itself, and splendid also
in the example it affords"
Failure may also teach us the true di-
rection of our faculties. We knock at
gates that never open and stumble along
the road, till we find the garlanded arch
way and the path beyond it fringed
with flowers. We hear a voice saying,
This is the way; walk ye in it,"
8. What Of the wrongs, the insults,
the injuries, we have received ? Is
there any compensation ? In the griefs |
they cause US, is there any wisdom |